A DISTRAUGHT husband has hit out at conditions at Crewe's Leighton Hospital after the death of his wife who was suffering from the 'superbug' MRSA and from CJD.

Spina bifida sufferer Elizabeth Roberts, 46, died on January 7. Her condition deteriorated after a fall in Leighton which had followed injections to increase her stability.

Her husband, Eddie Roberts, said: 'A nurse took her to the toilet,thenIheard abangandmy wife screaming.

'Whenthey broughtheroutshe had fallen and busted her nose and was bleeding.'

Mr Roberts explained that his wife was given a scan following the fall, and was told that it was clear.

She was then transferred to the Walton Centre in Liverpool, a specialistneurologicalcentre,for a brain biopsy, where it was discovered she was suffering from CJD - the human form of mad cow disease. Doctors suspected she had contracted it while being given growthhormonesforspina bifida as a child 40 years ago. Telephone:

Mr Roberts added that some weeks later he was told his wife was sufferingfromMRSA,which is transmitted through open wounds.

He said: 'They asked me at Liverpool if she had had any operations lately, but they should have known about her hip injections.

'There wasn't even anything in her notes about her fall, and if she had MRSA, why put her back on a ward?

'I would sit with her and hold her hand and joke with her, 'Why has this happened to us, hey?' She was gripping my hand, but the hospital had told me that she wasinasemi-comatosestate,and if she was holding my hand she didn't know she was doing it.

'I feel there was no compassion at all. The whole thing was appalling.' Mr Roberts has slammed hygiene at Leighton. He said he saw cigarette butts in hospital corridors, and said he had returned to the hospital a used cannula, a deviceused toholddripsinserted into patients, which he found in his wife's belongings after he had taken them home.

He says he is now considering taking legal action against the hospital.

A spokesman for Mid-Cheshire NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs Leighton, said: 'We extend our sympathy to Mr Roberts at this difficult time, following the death of his wife.

'The Trust is prevented from commenting in public upon individualcases throughitsdutyto protect patient confidentiality.

'Tackling MRSA1 and other healthcare-associated infections is given a very high priority by Mid-Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust.'